The End of the World

[Categories: Anime Reviews]

Allison to Lillia and the Nice Flying Boat arc: why am I still watching this?

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Allison to Lillia]

If you can’t make a good job of something, it seems there is some dignity in being consistent about it: as the series enters its second half with a number of new characters, Allison to Lillia is proving to be consistently laughable in its ridiculousness. The adventures may centre around two different protagonists (the son and daughter of those in the first half) but everything else about it, both good and bad, is pretty much the same. The dynamic between the two leads is also similar, which is I’m sure intentional despite being irritating on occasion; I guess Lillia has inherited her old man’s intellect coupled with an inability to spot the bleeding obvious but at least Treize lacks the clumsy, wet-blanket aspect his predecessor Wil did, beyond being unable to swim. It’s always fun to watch Lillia and Treize go about their adventuring thing though, which is just as well when the infamous A&L Plot Holes rear their ugly heads with astonishing regularity.

These two are cool. Shame about the rest

I guess the leads are still the two main reasons why I haven’t dropped this series already. The artwork and music are still of a high standard of course, so the combination of engaging cast and visual/musical prettiness is still enough for me. Just. From a personal standpoint the aeronautical hardware offers a bit of entertainment value on its own; a shame then that the series gets pretty much everything else spectacularly wrong.

It’s actually quite fun in a way to see Lillia unaware of Treize’s royal lineage, and likewise his blindness to her romantic advances. I’m sure that’ll be resolved by the final episode anyway, so in the meantime I happy to sit back and be entertained by it all. Furthermore, the recurring theme of wrestling control of a retro aeroplane pops up again and placates my inner aerogeek.

The plane that Allison uses to rescue Lillia and Treize for instance (see screenie below) looked a lot like the WW2 German FW-190, which was a cutting-edge piece of technology for its time. To the series’ credit, it makes sense that Allison’s plane is able to out-perform the slower seaplanes which she found herself up against: it might seem like severe artistic licence when she runs rings around them but given that she launched a surprise attack in a plane that’s based on a genuine historical design that could give Spitfires of the time a run for their money, that sequence was pretty convincing. Sadly, downing the said seaplanes by ramming them with a fully-laden passenger-carrying flying boat came across as downright stupid.

I can let that slide considering the fact that Lillia and Treize were all out of alternative plans of action, but the whole concept behind this arc’s premise was quite honestly illogical. I know the Tolcasian air force were trying to make a point, but when the plan is as drastic as downing a plane full of children, any grievance significant enough to justify that sort of action (if such a thing exists) requires a lot more explanation than is set out here. Treize mumbles about how they have a reason to feel ignored by the central government, but when there’s no underlying rationale this statement of his views just comes across as an excuse for more bad writing. There’s no escaping the fact that it would make an improbable plot a bit easier to swallow if it was explained what exactly Tolcasia is so upset. I think the plan was hatched by certain renegade members of the air force rather than the government per se, but that seems like a trivial point in the grand scheme of things.

If I were to play the dual roles of Tolcasia’s leader and Allison to Lillia’s head scriptwriter (two Devil’s Advocate positions that wouldn’t have many takers at your local Job Centre), would a better plan be to kill off the children of an enemy country instead, or, a considerably less psychopathic option, merely threaten to down it until someone listens to your demands? There are countless alternative plot devices here, which would all make considerably more sense and still offer our young heroes the chance to land the plane safely and save the day. This is all pretty outrageous, even by this series’ unenviable standards.

Cheers for that helpful assessment. Intelligence source, my arse

The icing on the cake of absurdity here is the ongoing issue I have with Wil, a.k.a. Major Travers (as Superman will testify, the most cunning disguise is donning a pair of glasses). It appears that he and his colleagues knew about the plan all along. So, let me get this straight: not only is a country willing to murder the most unfortunate and helpless members of its population to make a political statement, the Roxche intelligence division was aware of the situation, dragged its feet in putting a stop to the said plan, and to cap it all one of its agents was happy to leave his own daughter and her lifelong friend in harm’s way. As for the latter point, Wil-Travers is currently serving under his father-in-law, the conspicuously absent Major Stork, whose parenting skills are deficient to say the least. I’d expect nothing less from him in that case. *facepalm*

Actually, the character who organised the Nice Flying Boat trip in the first place is the biggest enigma of all by the end. He was allegedly the mastermind, despite the fact that the kids he’s planning to consign to a watery grave are among those he’s been using in a human trafficking operation. fortunately, he seems to be written out of the story now so my head is saved the risk of exploding under the strain of this particular piece of DOES NOT COMPUTE storytelling. Now that I’m waiting to see what the series can dish up next, I’m beginning to truly appreciate the bizarre appeal of trainwreck television; I now feel ready to look towards Code Geass R2 because despite the mixed reactions it’s received, there’s no way it can top to sheer scale of plot holes on offer here.

[Filed under Anime Reviews]  [Tags: Allison to Lillia]

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